Just a few weeks ago in this space I urged President Trump to accept a deal with Iran allowing it to continue pursuing civilian nuclear power while ensuring that it would not pursue nuclear weapons. Iran signaled it was ready to sign such a deal, yet suddenly Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff changed the US position to demand no civilian nuclear enrichment at all.
The US Administration understood that Iran could not accept such a demand – that it had that right as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty – but Witkoff shifted the position anyway. Just days before the sixth round of negotiations were to take place, Israel blew up the whole process by launching a surprise attack on Iran and here we are just over a week later staring right into the face of World War III.
Had the “bait and switch” and subsequent Israeli attack not taken place, we likely would be seeing rapidly improving trade relations with Iran and throughout the region that would have enriched all parties. Peace and prosperity. It would have been a “win-win” for everyone.
But the neocons and their leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, couldn’t stand the prospect of peace breaking out in the region so they dusted off their old lies about “weapons of mass destruction” from the lead up to the Iraq war and soon enough the talks were sunk beneath a barrage of Israeli – and as of this past weekend American – bombs and missiles.
President Trump’s decision to spend untold billions of dollars on what appears to be not much more than a “symbolic” bombing of Iran’s already-vacated nuclear facilities was no doubt made with the intention of making himself look tough. Unfortunately for him, it has had the opposite effect.
He has shown the world that he was no more able to resist the demands of the neocons and warmongers than his predecessors, and in abandoning his promises to be the president that ends wars instead of starting new ones he has also abandoned the most enthusiastic part of his base.
What President Trump does not seem to understand is that true strength is not measured in how many missiles you can send to the “Hitler of the month” as designated by the warmongers. True strength comes from standing up for your stated principles in the face of the enormous pressure that will inevitably be placed on you.
Real strength is strength of character. It often comes from the ability to say “no” when everyone around you demands that you give up a little bit of your principles for promises of riches or glory.
As of this writing, we are standing on the precipice of a major war in the Middle East that threatens to bring in much larger actors such as Russia and China. The neocons, filled with unwarranted vainglory, welcome such a clash because they won’t be doing the fighting and dying. They will be the ones reaping the financial and other rewards. As usual.
Unfortunately, President Trump has severely damaged his credibility by embroiling us in a war that is not our war. He would do well to immediately change course, search for off-ramps, make peace with Iran, and once and for all banish all neocons and warmongers from anywhere near his Administration. Otherwise “MAGA” will go down in history as nothing but a cruel joke.
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